Only three days have passed since Oliver Queen went off to fight Ra’s al Ghul, and Team Arrow has yet to hear any news. In his absence, the guys are keeping an eye on Starling City’s criminal underbelly, specifically a pair of cop killers on the run. With Diggle wearing the green leather and Arsenal on Oliver’s bike, the team manages to nab one of the pair, but the other, José Anton, gets away and scurries back to his boss.

The new kingpin in town is one Danny Brickwell (played by the incomparable Vinnie Jones). He’s less than amused that Anton and his buddy went rogue on a job and killed a cop. Brick offers Anton a weapon with which to defend himself, then proceeds to beat the thug to death. Evidently, Brick has a master plan for the Glades, and tipping off the authorities by killing cops does not fit into the plan.

The arrested minion’s lawyer is also in Brick’s employ and uses a burner phone to let his boss know that Fisher isn’t going to turn. This at least gives Team Arrow something to trace. They’re led right to the warehouse where Anton met his end, only to find both Anton and a slew of burner phones all now literally burned. Fortunately, Digg also finds scraps of a blueprint with a lot of seemingly random numbers on it.

When Team Arrow returns to the lair, they find the door already opened for them. The gang is hoping that their leader has returned, but instead the intruder is one Malcolm Merlyn. Thea’s been telling him how worried she is about Oliver, and he wants to know if they’ve heard anything from him yet. Upon learning that they haven’t, Merlyn heads out to the Mystic Mountain (you know, if the Sacred League of Assassins Fighting Mountain has an official name, don’t tell me. I like “Mystic Mountain” too much) to see what he can see. There he finds the sword that Ra’s al Ghul used to kill Oliver. Merlyn brings it back to Team Arrow as proof of Oliver’s demise and expresses his own sorrow. It seems that Oliver’s death has ensured that Merlyn will die, as well. I think we all agreed with Felicity’s response, “good.” Merlyn decides not to tell Thea about her brother’s fate. Instead, he tells her that it’s time to get the heck out of Dodge.

The guys still have something else to focus on. Digg recognizes the random numbers from the blueprint as case files. The case files represent pretty much every enforcer-type guy the Arrow has put away since the season 2 finale, and the blueprint is for the police warehouse that holds the physical evidence for all of their cases. Without that evidence, all of those bad guys will be back on the streets. Brick and his men break in to grab said evidence, only to be met by our heroes. Copious amounts of fighting leave Roy pinned by gunfire and Digg at the mercy of Brick, himself. Felicity has a minor breakdown at the idea of losing anyone else, and so creates a way for Brick’s gang to get away, thereby leaving Digg and Roy alive, but all of those bad guys on the loose.

Digg and Roy take Felicity to task over her decision, but she refuses to back down. She tells the boys that “there is no ‘this’ without Oliver,” turns the lights out, and effectively quits the team. Not only that, but she tells Ray that he can build his superhero suit without her help, as vigilantism only gets people she loves killed.

Digg takes on the responsibility of telling Laurel what they learned from Malcolm. When she asks if Digg is going to keep fighting, he tells her that he honestly doesn’t know. Laurel decides that, regardless of what Team Arrow does, she will keep going. She dons Sara’s costume and takes out a few of Brick’s thugs on her own.

While all of this is going down in Starling, something is up on the Mystic Mountain. A figure dressed in black finds Oliver’s body and drags it to a secluded cabin. Once inside, the figure shows himself to be our old friend, Maseo. He’s brought Oliver to his wife, Tatsu, so that she can “bring [him] back to life.” It’s ultimately successful, as by the end of the episode, Oliver is blinking and breathing once again. (Thank God. Otherwise, this show would have taken a really, really strange turn.)

Speaking of Maseo, back in the old Hong Kong days, Waller couldn’t give two, um, figs about the missing Tatsu. With the Triad having possession of Omega, they now only need its counterpart (the aptly named Alpha) in order to create a supervirus. She sends Oliver and Maseo to a compound held by the Hong Kong military in order to retrieve the compound for ARGUS. They do so, but only after meeting with considerable resistance from the Triad inside the building. During the ensuing firefight, Oliver lets one Triad goon escape. Waller is ticked, but Oliver reveals to Maseo that he secretly slipped a GPS tracker onto the minion so that they can follow him to Tatsu’s location. Well done, Ollie!

I’m so glad this show is back. It felt like an extremely long hiatus. And what a return this was! There were some amazing scenes put in by pretty much everyone on the show. John Barrowman’s apology for Oliver’s death quite literally gave me chills, and David Ramsey had me close to tears in his scene with Laurel. The quality of this show just continues to improve.

It’s pretty commonly known at this point (MINOR SPOILER AHEAD) that Oliver won’t be reuniting with his team for at least a couple more episodes. I can’t wait to see how the team will react now that they have “confirmation” of the death of their leader. What’s going to bring Felicity back into the fold? Will it be Laurel? I have to admit (and did admit on Twitter), this is the first episode since sometime in season 1 that actually made me like Laurel’s character. I wasn’t sure that was still possible. My props to Arrow!

Arrow 3.10 Episode Recap and Review

Where the heck is this Mystic Mountain that Merlyn can just run down there real quick to pick up Oliver’s sword? Does Starling just have the weirdest suburbs ever?

You guys, Felicity is 25, vice president of a major corporation, and on the support teams for anywhere from 2 to 5 superheroes or superheroes-in-training. I now consider myself old and wildly unsuccessful. Thank you.

rennlarkJenn is a contributing writer for FanBolt.com. Having been raised Geek Orthodox, Jenn has a love of most things sci-fi. Thanks to Georgia Tech, she also has an honest appreciation for the “sci” as well as the “fi”. Her current favorite shows include, but are not limited to: Doctor Who, Being Human, Sleepy Hollow, and various Joss Whedon offerings.

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